Jack Voight won this job, that paid 45,000 dollars at the time, by spending 45,000 dollars of his own money. WHY?? He spent the next 12 years collecting his government paycheck while running his Appleton insurance business.
This is what infuriates us about Government. Career politicians ringing up fat benefits and pensions. Yes they do their job. I am not saying that he did not.
I want to eliminate this position and have pledged to serve only one term regardless of whether I succeed or fail at doing so.
My opponent is a long time politician and Government employee. It's what he does for a living and there is nothing wrong with that.
But is this what we, the newly awakened conservative movement want, a continuance of the status quo. Or do we want a new attitude?
I vote the latter. how about you? If you agree please vote for me in the September 14th primary
this from my opponent's Facebook campaign site
Why is the State Treasurer’s Race Important
Whether people know it or not, the State Treasurer is a very important position. Here is just a small list of what the State Treasurer’s office does and some of the programs it is involved in:
1. The State Treasurer’s office administers a $2.4 BILLION fund. The Local Government Investment Pool combines funds from counties, municipalities, school districts and other local government units to help provide a greater rate of return.
My response. Do we really need to spend 12 million dollars (the current budget for the office) to manage a bank account. That's what this is. Its a bank account folks.
NEW UPDATE. this so called bank earned a wopping .2% in the first quarter of the year...we actually lost money when you consider that we spent money to administer it. What we are missing is an opportunity to stimulate a lot of local economies. If the cities and towns would use their local banks instead there would be no administrative costs and local banks would have to hire more help to keep up with the increased demands. Only a common sense non politician like myself would think of this since I have not been infected by the Government virus that affect linear thoughts. Vote for me if this makes sense to you
2. The Unclaimed Property Division holds more than $352 million in assets that the Treasurer’s office attempts to return to their rightful owners.
My response. Eliminating the office of Treasurer and its 12 million dollar budget will not eliminate the unclaimed property division. It will be rolled into the department of administration.
3. EdVest, the state’s college savings program, has nearly 250,000 accounts and $2 BILLION in assets for families saving for college. The Treasurer’s office is the primary marketer of this program.
My response. The Edvest program has oversight on top of oversight. Read the Wisconsin Blue book. It's hard to find someone in Government that is NOT responsible for Edvest. In addition to the Treasurer, there is an 11 member board responsible, the Wisconsin Investment Board is responsible, and on top of all this the Treasurers office hires another person to be responsible for Edvest. And what do we get with Edvest? We get Wells Fargo and a couple of choices of funds to put our money in. That's it. Out of thousands of highly performing investment funds we get Wells Fargo. Do we really need this overkill of oversight to monitor ONE investment company
4. Oversees the stewardship of over 75,000 acres of pristine Wisconsin land and forests as a Commissioner of Public Lands.
My response. Wow! What a miss characterization. This board oversees money received from the sale of the so called pristine land many years ago. Scott makes it sound like he is out there picking up trash on the shore of crystal lake. The DNR already has that responsibility Scott.
5. Oversees the administration of over $725 million in the State Trust Fund Loan program as a Commissioner of Public Lands.
My response. As I have already said this is correct. This is really what the Commissioners of Public Land does. They do not "Oversee the stewardship of pristine land" They loan money. Three people currently sit on this board. The Treasurer, the Secretary of State, and the attorney General. If the voters ever get the chance to eliminate the Treasurer and Secretary of State these two vacant positions can be filled by the Lieutenant Governor and The Superintendent of Education.
6. In 2007, loaned over $72 million to local governments through the State Trust Fund Loan program.
My response. Through the aforementioned Commissioners of Public Land. Which by the way will continue to loan long after we abolish the position of Treasurer
7. Authorizes the transfer of millions of dollars from the Common School Trust fund (over $207 million since 1990) to fund school libraries.
My Response: This is money earned from the interest on the unclaimed property and it has always been earmarked for our Library system. And that money will still flow to the libraries long after we eliminate the office of Treasurer
8. The State Treasurer is a member of the Depository Selection Board that selects the state’s bank.
My response. We need an office with a budget of 12 million dollars to help select a bank? And you wonder why your property taxes are so High?
9. The State Treasurer is the Treasurer of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
My response. A position easily filled by someone else in Government with more relevance. Alternatively why not out source this responsibility to a private accounting firm. Scott Walker has proven that privatization works and works well. Milwaukee county has a surplus instead of a deficit largely through his efforts at privatization.
10. The State Treasurer’s signature is on every state check that is issued.
My response. Yup Dawn Marie's Robo-signature was on every check too. Including the one that raided the patient's compensation fund. Yet when the medical society sued Wisconsin they were forced to remove her name from the suit. Why? after all she is Wisconsin's treasurer. The court determined that the Treasurer had no role in disbursing this money so they had to drop her name from the suit.
To sum it all up. I can think of 13.5 million reasons to eliminate these elected positions. And they are your tax dollars
Please support me by voting for Kurt Schuller in the September 14th Primary
